CSC 143

1. CSC 143 Stream I/O Classes and Files [A11-A15, A38-A50]

2. Standard Streams (review) • Standard streams defined in iostream.h : • cin: standard input stream (usually keyboard) • cout: standard output stream (usually screen) • cerr: standard error stream (also usually directed to the screen) • Operations • “get from”: cin >> k >> j; • “put to”: cout << “the answer is ” << z << endl;

3. Formatted Output • Various “manipulators” in <iomanip.h> can be included in the output stream to control the appearance of the next thing written. cout.setf(ios::fixed,ios::floatfield); cout << setprecision(3) << 12.34; produces 12.340 • Available operations include left/ right justify, set width, set number of digits of precision, …. See textbook for list.

4. <iomanip> • In the std namespace #include <iomanip> // To drop std:: notation using namespace std; • Supports more manipulators than iomanip.h cout << fixed << setprecision(3) << 3.14159; produces 3.142

5. Stream I/O for New Types • Stream operations >>, << are defined in C++ for basic types • New definitions of >>, << can be given for user-defined types (classes) // write Complex number as <real,imag> ostream& operator<<(ostream &s,Complex z){ return s << ‘<‘ << z.re << ‘,’ << z.im << ‘>’; } • This allows cout<<x<<y; How?

6. How cout<<x<<y works • >> and << are binary left-associative operations. • The meaning of cout << x << y << z; is ((cout << x) << y) << z; • So after writing desired output, operator<< must return a reference to the stream so it can be used for further output.

7. Stream States • All streams have a “state”. • All streams are objects (instances of stream classes) • Several member functions are available to check or set state. cin.eof();//true if cin eof reached cin.clear(); // set state to good • The stream itself can be used in an expression to check its state if (!cin) cerr << “error on cin” << endl;

8. Input Errors • Stream input “fails” if the next thing in the input has the wrong format or if there is no more data (end of file). • If an input operation fails, the variable involved is not changed. if (cin >> k) cout << "new value for k read ok"; else cout << "input failed; " << "k not changed";

9. Input Errors (cont) • Once a stream input operation has failed, any further operations will also fail until the stream state is reset. // suppose next input is “xyz” cin >> k; // fails; k unchanged cin >> j; // cin state not good, // so nothing happens cin.clear(); // cin can be used // for input again

10. Example: Copy Integers • This program copies integers from cin to cout until an input operation fails. Each integer is written on a separate output line. #include <iostream.h> int main() { int j; while (cin >> j) cout << j << ‘\n’; return 0; }

11. Unformatted Stream I/O • >> and << provide formatted I/O. Member functions provide unformatted (character-level) I/O. • Examples: char ch; char s[100]; cin.get(ch); //read 1 character into ch cin.getline(s); //read next line into s cout.put(ch); //write 1 character ch • Variations available to limit how many characters are read, specify end-of-line characters, etc.

12. File Concepts (review) • Input (read) vs output (write) • File name (on disk) vs file variable (in program) • open • close • end of file

13. Stream Classes • cin and cout are defined in <iostream.h>. • Library <fstream.h> contains similar classes for file I/O • Input stream classes: • istream: console input (cin) • ifstream: file input • Output stream classes • ostream: console output (cout, cerr) • ofstream: file output

14. File I/O • To open a file, give the disk file name as an argument when the file variable is created. #include <fstream.h> int main() { int k; ifstream here(“source.txt”); ofstream there(“dest.txt”); //copy one integer from here to there here >> k; there << k; } • Files are automatically closed when the program terminates (can also use the close member function)

15. File I/O Example • Example: Copy contents of user-specified input file to user-specified output file. #include <fstream.h> int main() { char filename[300],ch; cout << "input file? "; cin >> filename; ifstream source(filename); cout << "output file? "; cin >> filename; ofstream dest(filename); while (source.get(ch))dest.put(ch); return 0; }

16. File I/O Example • This version ignores various possible errors. What are they? • Opening the input or output files fails • Error while copying source to dest

17. Stream Class Relationships • Every ifstream (file) is also a istream. • An ifstream is an “enhanced” istream that has extra capabilities to work with disk files • An ifstream object can be used wherever an istream object is needed (function parameter, for example) • But the reverse is not true. An istream is not also an ifstream. • So if an ifstream is explicitly called for, cin can’t be used • A similar relationship holds between ofstreams and ostreams.